Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos said the device was the best Kindle the company has ever made.

He said: "Perfect in the bedroom, perfect in direct sunlight. People are going to love this device, and they're going to love the light. In fact, they're going to love it so much they're going to leave it on all the time."

The online superstore also used the event in LA to unveil new initiatives to boost its self-publishing programme, to help authors to get their work onto its store.

'Kindle Serials' will allow authors to sell subscriptions for fiction and non-fiction works, which will be released over a long period of time - similar to how authors like Charles Dickens originally published some of their most famous works.